Until June, 2003, all WASP training records were void of any evidence that Dean was ever a part of the WASP program. Then her daughter, Linda Barnes, contacted Texas Women's University (TWU) and provided her mother's pilot's log book and a few pictures to a TWU WASP archivist.

Most of the following information and pictures were provided by Linda Barnes, Dean's oldest daughter. My thanks to Tracey MacGowan at TWU for introducing Linda to me.

Her full name was: Virginia Dean Winston Helvering Hayes Stevenson. She was called Dean all her life. She was born June 29, 1918, in Arkansas and died April 13, 1999, in Indiana. She had one younger brother, three husbands, and two daughters: Linda and Judy.

She moved from Arkansas to Texas after high school graduation, marriage, and the birth of first child, Linda in 1937. For a short time in 1939, they lived in Hot Springs and Dean attended the Hot Springs Business School. While in Houston, Texas, Dean joined the WASP. She became part of class 44-3 and started training on October 4, 1943. Her log book shows flight hours from October 6 through November 20, 1943. She would may have completed primary training and was about to start basic training. Her class graduated on March 11, 1944.

When Dean joined the WASP training program, she had to leave Linda with her dad, Mr. Helvering, in Houston. Later, while living in San Antonio, Dean sent for Linda and placed her in a boarding school for a semester. At the end of the semester, Linda went back to Houston with her father. Dean divorced Mr. Helvering and moved to Michigan with her mother, Ethel "Rae" Chism Winston Westbrook Atkinson Hoffman. In 1955, Mr. Helvering moved to Indiana with Linda. Dean was a bookkeeper, mostly for car dealerships, but also had her own accounting business for some years keeping books for several small businesses. Dean stayed in Michigan until her last husband, Mr. Stevenson, retired. They moved to Arizona where Dean also retired. Mr. Stevenson died a couple of years later. Dean stayed in Arizona for 20 more years then moved to Indiana shortly before her death to be near her daughter Linda.

Follow-up - June 2004

Linda provided the following, "I got all of her military files from the national archives. She received a telegram from Jackie Cochran on Sept. 23, 1943 telling her to report to Avenger Field on Oct. 4th. ... On her application she listed solo and dual instructions at Cunningham Airport and ground instructions from Civil Air Patrol ground school."